There remain in use today many old-style hydrants which have an integral barrel extending below ground. Newer hydrants are no longer formed in such a manner, but have essentially a two-piece casing construction. An upper casing portion with water outlets and a relatively short barrel is located entirely above ground. A separate lower casing portion extends below ground and is connected to a water service. The upper and lower casing portions have flanges which are bolted together and which permit disconnection of the two principal components above ground level. One flange will commonly be a split flange with a frangible inner lip that seats in a groove formed in the associated casing portion thereby permitting the upper casing portion to break away from the lower casing portion if struck, for example, by a vehicle. The advantage of such newer hydrant construction is that damage is often restricted to the split flange and repairs are relatively simple and inexpensive.
Repair of an old-style hydrant whose water outlets or upper casing has been damaged by a vehicle is considerably more complicated and costly. The practice in municipalities is to break the concrete surrounding such a hydrant and to excavate soil to expose the entirety of the barrel and its junction with the water service. The entirety of the hydrant is then replaced, typically with a modern hydrant have the above-described two-part casing to simplify any future repairs. There is an obvious cost-saving to be achieved if the breaking of concrete and excavation can be eliminated. However, to the knowledge of the inventor, no repair or replacement method has been proposed which avoids such costly measures, prior to the present invention.